Alvarez held a news conference Thursday morning in Madison to talk about coach Bret Bielema's departure and the Rose Bowl.

"This will be one game," Alvarez said, indicating he has no intention to coach anything more than the Rose Bowl.

Alvarez said he will manage the game against No. 8 Stanford.

This will be his fourth trip to the Rose Bowl as a coach.

"It never gets old to me. I will enjoy every second of it," Alvarez said.

It was the players who convinced Alvarez to come back. Following Bielema's announcement, Alvarez received messages from senior quarterback Curt Phillips and captain Mike Taylor, who said the players had met and decided they wanted him as their Rose Bowl coach.

"I told him I would be honored to coach them," Alvarez said. "I wanted them to understand; if I was going to coach them, we weren't going to screw around. We were going to go out there to win."

"The respect that he demands by having success in that type of situation is something that we're all extremely excited about. Obviously, he's never lost a Rose Bowl, so I'm kind of hoping he can shed some light on that for us because we've had some struggles with that the past couple years. But it's an awesome opportunity," Badgers quarterback Phillips said Thursday.

Alvarez's 118-73-4 record in 16 seasons coaching the Badgers includes a 3-0 mark in the Rose Bowls -- Wisconsin's only victories in eight trips to Pasadena.

Alvarez was in New York City earlier this week when news broke that Bielema was leaving.

Alvarez said Bielema asked him if he should stay and coach the bowl game, but Alvarez told him, "No."

The UW-Madison athletic director said he has a short list of coaches to replace Bielema and said he has reached out to some of them. Alvarez said he will start with head coaches but hasn't completely ruled out assistant coaches.

"Anyone who is competitive will realize this is a good job," Alvarez said.

When asked about the possibility of Paul Chryst coming back, Alvarez said he helped Tryst get the job at Pitt and didn't think it would be right for him leave after one year.

He said he won't use a search committee.

"Most search committees use me," he said.

Bielema was officially introduced Wednesday afternoon at a news conference in Fayettville and made sure to thank Alvarez, who gave him his first head coaching job in college football.

"I'm proud of the job Bret did for me," Alvarez said.

Bielema will be paid $3.2 million annually for six years at Arkansas, the school said Wednesday as it prepared to introduce its new football coach.

Arkansas released its signed letter of agreement with Bielema, which includes another $700,000 in annual incentives. Arkansas will also pay its new coach's $1 million buyout to Wisconsin.

Bielema replaces interim coach John L. Smith, who was hired after Bobby Petrino was fired. Long announced after the season that Smith wouldn't return.

Bielema's agreement calls for paying Arkansas $3 million if he leaves during his first year, with the buyout lowering by $500,000 each year afterward.

Arkansas is required to pay him $12.8 million if it fires Bielema in the first three years of the deal. That drops to $9.6 million in the fourth year, $6.4 million in the fifth and $3.2 in the final year -- providing the 42-year-old with what appears to be plenty of job security.

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